To Kuwaitis, War in Iraq Sounds Fine -- as Long as Hussein Goes

KUWAIT CITY -- While much of the Muslim world hurls anti-American insults and frets about fallout from a possible U.S.-led war in Iraq, Kuwaitis have a different concern.

They worry that, just as in 1991, the United States might fail to finish off Saddam Hussein. New signs of qualms about an armed attack on Iraq among key U.S. allies, including Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have added to this concern.

But with an estimated 17,000 American troops already in Kuwait and thousands more due to arrive in the coming weeks, the country is betting that President Bush is serious about “regime change” in Iraq.

Although the government of this tiny oil-rich emirate publicly says it would prefer that Hussein’s departure be caused by means other than war, in private the message is clear: Attack him hard, and the sooner the better. To help that happen, the Kuwaiti government has opened up new facilities for U.S. forces, assists in protecting them and has closed off a quarter of the country to its own people in order to let the Americans train.

“We’ve adjusted our psyche, opened our desert, our skies and our seas to the United States in order to achieve this objective,” said Abdullah Bishara, Kuwait’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1971 to 1981 and now a wealthy property developer. “Our only worry now is that it ends in a half-baked solution that leaves Saddam in power and us in a lurch.”

There is little affection in the Islamic world for Hussein, but some people admire him because of his defiance of the United States. The Kuwaiti government’s unabashed pro-U.S. stance and the powerful public dislike of Hussein make for an unusual combination in an Arab country.

A Kuwaiti official who spoke on condition of anonymity said simply: “It is Kuwait, not Iraq, that is isolated in the Arab world.”

Any hints of a possible delay in moving against the Iraqi dictator, such as those contained in political comments Monday, make Kuwaitis nervous.

Among the developments:

* British Prime Minister Tony Blair, under mounting pressure from the left wing of his ruling Labor Party, said he would prefer to return to the U.N. Security Council for a new resolution before participating in an attack against Hussein. However, he also stressed that a U.N. failure to act should not prevent military action against Hussein.

* International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said it could take U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq a “few months” to complete their work, which began Nov. 27 after an interruption of four years. He and other IAEA officials have also said the mission could take from six months to a year.

* An unnamed Pentagon official in Washington told the Reuters news agency that political pressures and the simple mechanics of organizing an invasion would probably prevent any military action against Hussein before mid-March.

* Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, said in an interview from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, that a war against Iraq would be a catastrophe for the region, even if the Security Council declared Baghdad in material breach of U.N. resolutions.

“At least give us a chance [to see] what is possible. If we don’t succeed, those working for war can have their war as they please, which is going to be a catastrophe for the region,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Kuwaitis dismiss such comments as a form of appeasement.

“We have suffered because of [former President] George Bush’s goodness and [former President Bill] Clinton’s indecision,” Bishara said. “War is not fought by saints. If you get caught up in Mother Teresa exultations, you’ve never achieve your objectives.”

A prominent Kuwaiti businessman, Fuad Abdul, said of Hussein: “If they are going to give him another chance, he’ll be bigger than ever, and the whole region will be finished.”

Kuwait’s desire for an aggressive American policy in the region is easy to understand. The New Jersey-sized country with a population less than half that of Los Angeles is a small fry in a tough neighborhood. It was invaded by Iraq in 1990, and Kuwaitis are quick to observe that without American protection, its survival as an independent country might be difficult.

With sprawling shopping malls, American-style restaurants and a network of freeways sprinkled with Chevy Blazers, Toyota Land Cruisers and Ford Mustangs, Kuwait City in some ways even resembles a kind of displaced San Fernando Valley suburb.

Despite their strong dependence on the United States, however, Kuwaitis’ image of America has been tainted during the last year, mainly by the nightly images of Israeli attacks on Palestinians that have become the centerpiece of television news in the Arab world.

Political observers say this is especially true among younger Kuwaitis -- those too young to recall the horrors of the 1990 invasion and the American-led offensive that ended Iraq’s seven-month occupation.

Some believe it is significant that the two extremists who killed a U.S. Marine and wounded another in an attack last October were both in their 20s, while a Kuwaiti traffic policeman who stopped and then shot two American soldiers six weeks later was just 20.

Still, the majority of Kuwaitis remain strongly pro-American, and if their stock market is any measure, they are betting that U.S. military muscle will drive Hussein from power -- by force or by intimidation.

While the prospect of war in most places gives investors the jitters, Kuwait’s market index jumped nearly 40% last year amid talk of a war beyond the country’s northern border.

The index has continued to rise this year as the arrival of more American forces has led Kuwaitis to bet that Bush means business.

Driving investor optimism is the prospect that Hussein’s demise would lead to the reopening of Kuwait’s border with Iraq after 12 years, along with old, highly lucrative trade routes linking southern Iraq with Kuwait and the sea beyond.

“The local business community is almost salivating at the thought these connections can reopen,” said a senior Western diplomat. “There’s a lot of family connections there. [The Iraqi port city of] Basra was always a favorite spot for weekend recreation.”

Although Kuwaitis are aware that their capital could be hit by one of Hussein’s remaining missiles or become the target of an act of sabotage, there are no perceptible war nerves here, no hoarding of food and fuel, and little visible preparation by the civilian population. Government departments conduct occasional evacuation drills, but bomb shelters are hard to find, as are gas masks and other protective gear.

Kuwaitis are also convinced that when the fighting starts, American forces will push the Iraqis back so quickly that Hussein will be unable to reach populated areas of this country with his short-range missiles.

“He needs to be removed now,” said Abdul, the businessman. “We are supporting the United States, but not if they give Saddam another chance.”